Last Day of 2007

Wow, how this year has flown. It seems like we always say that every December 31st, but this time it has truly been an activity-packed year.

Lisa came over for her first long-haul trip and amazed Todd with her smoky "O" rings ;-) Isn't this also when you were introduced to pear cider?
Allan and Todd and I took our first ever long-distance trip as a family. Todd enjoyed his first plane ride, and not only did we get to see a host of different cities, but we also got to meet more Net friends offline. Thanks again, Carl and Catch, for throwing the barbecue!
My grandmother passed away unexpectedly yet peacefully, and though we regret that Todd won't get to have her around more, we're glad he DID get to enjoy a few years with her.
I am still in between jobs, but the delay has actually turned out to be a blessing: not only am I able to help out while Mom recovers, but it's provided some great mother-son bonding time, something I haven't really been able to have since Todd was born!

All in all, a pretty good year with more than its share of ups and downs. I am looking forward to 2008 and the things it will bring :-) Meanwhile, this is what we have to ring in the New Year:



That "Ace" brand was the only one I could find, it was at Trader Joe's. All the other big-chain grocery stores had only apple cider. I tried a bit last night, and blergh... it tastes like beer. I had expected it to taste more like pears but it had very little such flavor. Ah well, there's sparkling blueberry juice and Moscato wine for the festivities.

Happy New Year, everyone! See y'all next year! :-D

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/343019651)

Holiday Ruminations

Christmas has come and gone. We've got a green Eddie Bauer shopping bag sitting on the floor, chock-full of candy and chocolate from the various stocking stuffers. Todd likes raiding it, giving me an angelic look and hinting "There's something in the green bag!" We seriously need to hide it-- out of sight, out of mind!

Speaking of coveting things, Allan and I have proven that we truly are bigger kids than our own toddler son. First there was his stuffed turtle-- it was so cute and cuddly that I wanted one of my own. Before I got it for Christmas, Todd had picked up on how much I liked his turtle, and started sharing it with me. But I'm not the only culprit. Allan grew up playing with Tonka toys, not the cheap plastic kind, but the sturdy metal ones that last lifetimes. So when Todd got a Tonka dump truck from his aunt, you can imagine who else wanted one (I have the video evidence of Allan's out-loud wish, too!) and who wound up on the living room floor playing with glee... long past the little man's bedtime :-P

Boxing Day. Canadians, Brits and Australians celebrate it. I guess that makes us the only English-speaking industrialized nation *not* to celebrate it. And that means I have no idea what it's supposed to entail. So what ARE you supposed to do on Boxing Day? And what did you guys do?

2007 is nearly over. What a year it's been! I remember ringing in 2006 with a bunch of Net friends all over the world-- what a riot! Allan didn't know most of them, but I remember connecting my laptop to the projector so the screen was displayed on our living room wall, and he could read along on the IM window (as well as hear the mic users through my turned-up speakers). This year will probably be more low-key, probably Times Square on TV. Todd loves fireworks, too bad midnight is far too late for him to stay up to see some. And maybe I'll find some pear cider and give it a try for once! Any brand suggestions?

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/342236450)

Relaxing and Fun Christmas

Monday and Tuesday shaped up to be one of the best little Christmases I'd ever celebrated! Now that little man is old enough to be excited about opening presents and decorating a tree, I had loads of fun shopping for little things for him to wrap and stuff the stocking with, as well as finding a little tree to decorate.

While in LA, my mom and I found an adorable little 3-foot tree in the nursery near our house, which was chock full of all kinds of gorgeous trees, both Douglas and Noble. We put it on the end table in the house, but when we opened up the box of lights and decorations, we discovered that the ornaments and lights were too big, as all our previous trees had been at least 6 feet tall. Still, we decked the tree out anyway and it didn't look too bad!



I got a fake 3-foot tree for our apartment in SB, and we had to forego the use of lights because the string of bulbs I bought was too short, and I had little desire to pay outrageous sums of money to get a new light strand from K-Mart down the street. So, we made do with little ornaments and some garland. Todd had fun helping, though by the time we took this picture, the lopsidedness (as you can imagine, most of the balls and candy canes wound up at the bottom of the tree) had been fixed:



Anyway, Christmas Eve was spent unwrapping presents, and basking in the joy of watching Todd rip open giftwrap with glee. Me, I got a 17-inch stuffed turtle that is identical to Todd's… only bigger, of course :-D

Christmas morning, Todd discovered a plush Blue from Blue's Clues in his stocking—left by Santa, of course. Then we headed to LA to celebrate with Allan's family. Along the way, traffic was blissfully nonexistent—highly unusual for downtown LA!

Todd had a great time playing with Allan's family, really coming out of his shell and actively engaging in conversation and giggles with everyone. He also loved playing with Sammy, Uncle Ron and Aunt Debbie's Lhasa Apso. This was a total first—up till now, Allan's family rarely had the opportunity to glimpse Todd as he really is at home—a big ball of boundless energy, talking a mile a minute and laughing like crazy.



One of my favorite Todd moments while opening presents was when he opened my parents' gift to him—a check. As it fluttered out of the box, he exclaimed: "Oh! I got paper!" But when he opened up Grandpa's gift of cash, he instantly recognized it as money and proclaimed: "I can pay!" And not just for toys and junk, for when asked what he'd pay for, he answered: "Food! For Mommy and Daddy!" :-D

Here's little man on the lawn of Ron and Debbie's house:


The evening ended a bit later than expected, when Allan locked the car keys in the trunk and we had to wait for AAA to show up and "break in" to the car. Very apt, then, that we made immediate use of the Christmas present that Ron and Debbie traditionally give us every year—a AAA membership.

All in all, this turned out to be one of the best Christmases I've ever had. Nothing exciting—just small, quiet family celebrations. Christmas Eve in our apartment in SB, and Christmas Day with Allan's family. But it was loads of fun because of Todd. Things I normally loathe, like shopping for gifts, decorating the tree, and wrapping presents, were made enjoyable because I liked the thought of Todd opening the presents or hanging ornaments on the tree, with the kind of childlike wonder and glee that only, well, children possess :-)

 (originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/341568672)

Home! (or not) (ok, home it is)

Mom's home-- yay! The surgeon saw her this morning and shared the amazing tale of how her surgery ALMOST turned into the major-invasive-slice-you-open-big-time one, but at the last moment, he got a clear picture through the cameras and could proceed laparoscopically, after all. Isn't that awesome?

Spent all morning cleaning the house, which paid off when my cousin and her parents arrived for a visit right after I got mom home. Probably anticipating more visitors tomorrow, so I'm glad the house is still in tip-top shape-- Todd hasn't destroyed it too much yet ;-)

Mom's appetite is flourishing, voice is back to normal, and I'm sure it won't be long till the incision wounds heal and her lungs are operating at maximum capacity again.

Here's to a Merry-- and healthy! Christmas!

EDIT [Wed, 19 Dec]:
1. pathology results are back-- they say it IS the same cancer as from her colon, so now she has a referral for a chemotherapy doc. just waiting on an appointment for it now.

2. I just got home from dropping her off at the ER. shortness of breath increased today, which is a bit worrisome, so she's there tonight just in case, and hopefully they'll be able to sort her out tonight or tomorrow.

and now i'm gonna finish my tea and collapse into bed, knowing that the construction workers outside my window will have me up in about 6 hours... and even if they don't, toddy will be up within 7 hrs.

EDIT 2, Thursday, 20 Dec:
So, about 3 hours after I dropped my mom off at the ER, she was ready to go home. Of course, as it was 3am, she was loathe to call anyone at home and wake us up, and so waited till 5am, the time my dad is usually up, before she called and asked him to pick her up.

So, little did I know that when I got up at 9am this morning, mom was actually sleeping in her bedroom. I went about my usual morning routine, and then settled down by the phone at 10am to call the hospital to find out where she was and how she was doing. Imagine my surprise when they told me she'd been discharged at 5am. As soon as I heard that, it dawned on me that dad had picked her up.

When I got up from the phone, that's when I finally noticed little things... like her jacket draped over a kitchen chair. And a hospital bag on the floor with her purse inside. I peeked inside her room-- there she was. Can you say: DUH!!

I'm still chuckling at my moment of ditziness this morning!

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/339111611)

Hospitals

Hospitals. They seem hit-or-miss most days. I have only ever been hospitalized once in my life, and that was when Todd was born. Since both the pregnancy and delivery were very uneventful and normal, I wasn't a patient with very many needs. Heck, my appetite never even floundered-- Todd was born at lunchtime, and I ate my cold meal ravenously right after he came out-- while still in the delivery room!

I wish I could say the same for my mother. Now, don't get me wrong-- she's been in contact with some excellent, caring, responsible doctors. Just look at the timeline: my dad's company switched to a new insurance provider effective 1 Dec. My mom was able to secure a flurry of immediate appointments and referrals with all the right kinds of doctors-- to the point that surgery itself was scheduled for 13 Dec, a mere 12 days later. That cannot be called anything but a miracle, and for that we're very thankful.

However, now she's on to the recovery phase, spending time in the recovery ward of the hospital, where the staff is less than stellar. Yesterday I dropped by in the afternoon, intending to stay for an hour at most, just to check in on Mom. Instead, I wound up staying for over 5 hours because I had to play go-between and drag the nurses in when they wouldn't respond to my mom's call button, as well as help mom out with things I knew the nurses would drag their heels in getting to.

A number of things aggravated me about the nurses on duty. All of it boiled down to one thing: a bad attitude, not only toward their patients, but toward their work in general. Of the nearly dozen nurses on duty, only one did not possess a holier-than-thou attitude and act with disdain everytime I asked a question or asked for help on my mom's behalf. At one point, we couldn't understand why the nurse who had been tending to my mom all day, just stood there staring vacantly at my mom, who was waving frantically for help. (turns out that it was because of a shift change-- the "night nurse" had officially taken over, but would it have hurt for the "day nurse" to at least come by and reassure us "I'm off duty now, she's your new nurse"??)

Although it's my mom's responsibility to try to get up and walk around to regain her strength, none of the nurses could be bothered to help her up and help her walk around. That I could not understand-- not everyone has family who can spend the entire day at the hospital helping out, I would've expected one of them to come by my mom's room and *force* her to get out and move around a bit, as part of her recovery process! But no. They were all very mean and acted like we were bothering them and they were doing us immense favors for things like putting a bedpan in or helping adjust my mom more comfortably on the bed.

There were many more such "horror stories" from yesterday, but I won't bore you with the details. The important thing is that my mom's slowly improving despite the laziness, arrogance and impatience of the staff charged with her care. I would hate to think how I would feel and react if I were in her situation-- unable to move about, riddled with pain, and helpless because nobody around me (save for family, of course) will help.

She was sitting up when Allan, Todd and I came by today, and her voice was louder. I mean, it was by no means her normal pitch, but at least I didn't have to lean in and put my ear near her mouth to understand what she was saying! Todd entertained her a bit by telling her about his fun-filled day... which I think I will save for a separate blog entry!

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/338529494)

Duck Entourage

Part 2 of my previous blog entry chronicling the past couple days...

Today was Todd's last day of preschool for the year. The preschool is actually an "early learning program" put together by the local city recreation center, which also provides services such as after-school programs, dance classes, music lessons, theater classes and sports classes (including martial arts). Today several such classes put together a "Holiday Show".

Todd's class sang 3 songs-- "Jingle Bells", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "The Dreidel Song". The dance and piano classes put on various recitals, the theater group did an improv and the martial arts groups put on karate and kickboxing demonstrations. Obviously, I was most keenly interested in seeing the performance of all the little toddlers. A bunch of 3 and 4-year-olds singing with glee? That stole the show ;-)
I dressed Todd up in a new red flannel shirt, and the black pants from his suit-- it barely still fit! Here he is dressed up as a dreidel:



Afterward, we headed to nearby Lake Balboa, a gigantic park/golf course/recreation center where the city was holding a Holiday Festival which basically consisted of free food (a hot dog, bag of chips, and juice box for each visitor), vendor booths, and a visit from Santa. It was all fun, especially watching Santa arrive by boat from the distant shore of the lake, but the REAL highlight came when we rented a footpedal-powered paddleboat and floated around the lake.

While eating lunch, Todd and I had fun feeding some of the birds on the lake with bread crumbs from his hot dog. It was amazing how well-trained the birds were-- we didn't even throw in any food at first, all we had to do was stand by the edge of the lake and they swarmed to us, hoping for a handout. Pavlov would be proud ;-)

As we paddled around the lake, I came upon the idea of trying to feed ducks from the boat itself, to see what would happen. You guessed it-- they swarmed around us and swam along with us, and kept peeking up at us, hoping for more food. It was adorable!

It was especially neat to see the interplay between the various ducks. Our first few visitors were a small handful of ducks-- one Mallard duck and a few white ducks whose name I do not know, but whom I referred to as "Aflac ducks" (because they are the mascot for the Aflac insurance company-- ever seen the commercials?) None of the ducks were afraid-- when I held food out in my hand over the water, they'd jump up and clamor for it. One of them even ate right out of Todd's hand-- grabbing the chip before Todd could throw it. He blinked in amazement at his now-empty hand, that's how fast the duck was.

The Mallard was very aggressive, having no trouble pushing the other ducks out of the way to get closer to us. One hilarious sight involved two ducks, beaks interlocked, in a tug-of-war as one tried to grab the food from the other's mouth. And the bigger ducks (the Mallards and Aflacs) liked to come right to the edge of the boat, stick their necks out, and eat off the boat itself! Here's the Mallard, mid-grab:



It wasn't long before other birds got wind of what was going on and flocked to join us, and we had "duck groupies" swimming behind and alongside us wherever Allan paddled around the lake! We were even joined by these strange-looking birds I have yet to identify-- maybe someone can help me? They are black, small (about the size of pigeons), white beaks, and odd feet-- the webbing was not fully connected like on ducks or geese. Their feet look like chicken's feet but with feather-shaped separate webbing along each toe. Towards the end, even the seagulls got in on the action-- flying by around us and settling in to swim with the ducks. That cracked me up because all I could think of were the greedy "Mine!" birds from Finding Nemo! Here is a shot of part of our feathered entourage, who followed us all the way back to the dock when we returned our boat.



I cropped a few of the "mystery birds" out of the photos I took of the entire entourage, and here's a couple of them, hopefully they'll aid a reader out there in figuring out what they are? I'd be much obliged!

 

I forgot to mention that since by then we were out of hot dog, we supplied the birds with a bag of barbecued potato chips. Todd's and my hands were quite a sight after we were done crumbling up chips and throwing them in the water. The ducks seemed to like it-- I hope they don't get a tummyache over it, especially the aggressive Mr. Mallard, who seemed to have gotten more than his fair share of food today ;-) Next time we visit this lake, we're gonna rent another boat and come prepared with a bag full of bread already crumbled up-- let the fun begin! :-D

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/338532068)

Doing Well

Took mom to the hospital yesterday morning, as her checkin was scheduled for 10am (with an anticipated surgery time of noon). After being prepped by the nurses and briefed by the anesthesiologist, who advised us that this operation might take a few hours (and even then I'd have to wait another couple hours for mom to go through post-op before I could see her) I took off. I left my cell phone number with the nurse in charge of my mom, asking them to call me when they were done.

3pm rolled around. Then 4pm. Still no phone call. I was getting a bit antsy. Finally, at 4:45pm I called the hospital. Luckily I still had the phone number of the general surgery department's appointment line onhand, and dialed it directly so they could forward me to the appropriate party. I ended up speaking to a woman in post-op, who told me my mom was doing fine and that she should be delivered to the recovery room by 6:30pm. I was a bit miffed that nobody called me, but I suppose the "no news is good news" maxim applied here-- something that didn't occur to me until after I called.

I fixed dinner for my dad and Todd, then took off-- arriving at the recovery rooms at 6:40pm. I walked into the room and was surprised-- no sign of mom! After hunting down one of the many nurses on duty at that station, I discovered that I had actually beat my mom to arriving there! She was still on her way out of post-op. So I sat in the waiting area for about 15 minutes before wandering back in-- and there mom was.

She looked fine, aside from a bit of jaundice. No breathing tubes or anything sticking out of her. Blood pressure read normal. And she was snoozing away, even snoring a bit. She woke briefly, asked me what time it was and how long I'd been there. She was so disoriented and still drugged up she didn't realize she was in a different room. She kept dozing on and off. At one point she asked me if I'd taken care of dinner, and when I told her I cooked, her eyes widened in surprise (I'm not much of a cook). That cracked me up. When she awoke again a few minutes later, she again asked me what time it was and how long I'd been there. I had to chuckle-- I wonder how much of this conversation she'll remember (if any at all) today when I drop by? anyway, she reassured me that she was comfortable, breathing fine, warm enough, etc...

I tried to find out more about her condition and how things had gone, but since it was after hours, the surgeon was no longer around, and since she'd JUST arrived in recovery, nobody had had a chance to thoroughly review her chart. Hopefully today I can get more answers when I return.

Of course, that will have to wait until after lunch, as I shouldn't bring Todd with me, and there won't be anyone to watch him until Allan arrives from Santa Barbara.

Meantime... I'd better get some breakfast for myself and Todd. I got some library books yesterday (including a really nifty one all about turtles!) so maybe we'll get a chance to delve into them this morning. Also a good way to keep him occupied and prevent him for tearing down the house I just tidied up last night ;-P

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/338056330)

The next few days...

... will definitely be a whirlwind of (offline) activity.

An update to my previous blog entry from last week:

The biopsy turned out positive for cancer (we kinda figured anyway). Mom and I visited with the thoracic surgeon yesterday. Despite looking extremely youthful, he was a very nice, respectful and knowledgeable doctor with many years of experience. He explained that they should be able to perform a lobectomy of my mom's upper left lung lobe and do it via minimally invasive surgery: instead of cutting her open all the way, they should be able to use cameras. This means not only smaller incisions (a couple tiny ones for the cameras, and one "large" one to fit the mass through"), but faster recovery time. It also means that, barring any unforeseen complications, she should be discharged the next day, after the operation.

The surgery has been scheduled for tomorrow. If all goes well, my mom should be home by Friday.

Thanks, everyone, for all your kind words and prayers. Please continue to pray for her. I will be sure to keep everyone posted on the updates, as they come.

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/337465546)

Been far too long...

... since I updated this blasted thing (I'm in the library right now)! Been in LA this past couple weeks, and dialup is not conducive to much web surfing beyond checking emails and reading (but barely being able to comment on) my friends' blogs. I've discovered that Google Maps (or any other mapping service) also dies on dialup-- it's useless. Bereft of my handy Thomas Guide, it was faster for me to call Allan and have HIM look up directions for me and then dictate them over the phone.

Anyhoo-- first up, Todd stuff:

He's been in a preschool of sorts since September, and has adjusted pretty well to it. No longer too shy to even ask to go to the bathroom (I no longer have to bring a change of clothes in case of accidents during the day), and plays well with the other kids. He's taken to another little boy, and I'm not too pleased-- the kid hates school, plays too roughly, and his attitude is a bad influence on Todd.

Part of our parental duties is to serve as volunteers once a month, I've done it twice so far, and it's neat to see what goes on in class and what the kids learn-- alphabet, numbers, singing, crafts-- all good stuff! They even get homework every week. On the 15th the school is having a Holiday Show and Todd's class will sing 3 classic Christmas songs, it'll be neat to see our son out in public, performing with his classmates.

WORK STUFF:
I've lost track of what I've recently blogged about, but my interview at Citrix went well and the recruiter received positive feedback. Unfortunately there's one slight snag: despite the need, there aren't any actual positions officially available to offer anyone. The recruiter has even had to cancel interviews that were supposed to take place this past few weeks because they are still haggling with Finance and corporate HQ to get funding for official positions. They are hopeful for some results in 1st Quarter 2008-- if not then, then hopefully 2nd Quarter. So, if I do get an offer it won't be till January at the earliest, and possibly not till March or April. Fingers crossed that Finance approves the openings they are requesting.

Amgen stock continues to hover in the 50s. Prime time to buy, I say. I took a look at my stock options online the other day-- because I started working when their stock was at an all-time high (in the 80s), my strike price is $80 per share. Umm... yeah, no thanks-- I don't think I'll be exercising those options at all-- even though they expire in a month.

FAMILY STUFF:
Thanksgiving came and went, as always, we gathered at Ron and Debbie's house for a nice quiet family dinner. Todd continues to gradually shed his shyness around Allan's family. This year, he was busy interacting more with them, allowing us to leave him alone with other family members, and even playing actively with the dog! He had great fun teaching Uncle Ron how to count from 1-5 ;-)

Saturday we saw the LADWP Christmas Lights, a mile-long stretch of colorful and whimsical Christmas light displays. I managed to snap a few photos with my phone-- we'll see how they turn out when I download them this weekend. Todd didn't talk much during last year's show, so this year was a treat to have him sit in the back seat and exclaim at all the sights.

On to more somber news: my mom's had a persistent cough for nearly two months. A few weeks ago, her doctor ordered some X-rays to see if they could find the cause. They still haven't, but the X-rays revealed a mass in her lungs, leading to more tests and scans to figure out what it is. These past few days have been a flurry of carting my mom back and forth between doctors and clinics, the latest of which involved doing a lung mass biopsy. In the meantime, we are awaiting news of the biopsy results while Mom recovers from a partially collapsed lung (caused by the biopsy procedure).

As most of you know, my mom had a bout with colon cancer 2 years ago, and we are hoping that if the mass in her lung turns out to be cancer, it isn't the same one that was in her colon. Because if it is, that indicates that it has spread, and that's not good news.

Please pray for her, her health, and a successful and uneventful recovery. Thanks.

That's about it for current updates! :-)

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/334873733